Kenyan Nobel laureate Maathai dies

Kenyan environmentalist and human rights activist, Wangari Maathai has died at the age of 71

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Maathai was a trailblazer throughout her life. She was the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree and in 2002 was elected to Kenya's parliament with 98 percent of the vote.

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In 2004, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to promote sustainable development, democracy and peace.

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Wangari was the first African woman to win the Nobel prize but followed previous winners from the continent such as Nelson Mandela.

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Maathai was famed for her commitment to environmental causes. Here she confronts hired security guards in Kenya aiming to prevent her organization, the Green Belt Movement from planting trees

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All in all, the Green Belt Movement has assisted in planting more than 40 million trees worldwide.

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Maathai was also committed to the cause of reducing poverty and took part in the Live 8 campaign alongside rock superstars such as Bob Geldof and Bono.

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Wangari Maathai plants a tree in Nairobi 2006 with the visiting --then Senator for the state of Illinois -- Barack Obama.

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– In 2007, Maathai received the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding, administered by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations. Previous recipients of the award include Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, Indira Gandhi and Nelson Mandela.

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Receiving the Chairman's award alongside fellow environmental campaigner and Nobel Prize Winner, Al Gore at the NAACP Image Awards in 2009. Maathai is survived by her three children and grandaughter.

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Story highlights

Obama says "her legacy will stand" on environmental and other issues

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon describes her as a "pioneer"

The Green Belt Movement founder was elected to Kenya's parliament with 98% of the vote

She was the first woman from Africa to win the Nobel Peace Prize

Kenyan Wangari Maathai, the first woman from Africa to win the Nobel Peace Prize, died Monday after a battle with cancer. She was 71.

Maathai, an environmentalist, had long campaigned for human rights and the empowerment of Africa's most impoverished people.

More than 30 years ago she founded the Green Belt Movement, a tree-planting campaign to simultaneously mitigate deforestation and to give locals, especially women and girls, access to resources like firewood for cooking and clean water. They have since planted more than 40 million trees.

"Professor Maathai's departure is untimely and a very great loss to all who knew her -- as a mother, relative, co-worker, colleague, role model and heroine -- or who admired her determination to make the world a more peaceful, healthier and better place," her organization said.

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"Her departure is untimely and a very great loss to all of us who knew her—as a mother, relative, co-worker, colleague, role model, and heroine—or those who admired her determination to make the world a peaceful, healthy, and better place for all of us," said Karanja Njoroge, executive director of the Green Belt Movement.

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She was the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree. In December 2002, she was elected to Kenya's parliament with an overwhelming 98% of the vote.

She was honored by Time magazine in 2005 as one of 100 most influential people in the world. And Forbes listed her as one of 100 most powerful women in the world.

In April 2006, France bestowed its highest honor on her: the Legion d'Honneur.

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki called Maathai a "global icon who has left an indelible mark in the world of environmental conservation."

Her passing elicited tributes from all around the world, like one from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in which he described her as "a pioneer in articulating the links between human rights, poverty, environmental protection and security." He noted that she'd been active in his organization, including as a U.N. Messenger of Peace and part of a group trying to formulate global millennium development goals.

Achmat Dangor, the executive director of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, recalled a 2005 speech that she made before his group in which she laid out specific steps that citizens, governments and businesses could take to protect the environment.

"We need people who love Africa so much that they want to protect her from destructive processes," Maathai said then. "There are simple actions we can take."

British Foreign Secretary William Hague called the passing of the "charismatic figure ... a great loss to the world," and fellow environmental activist and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore recalled her as a woman who "worked tirelessly (to become) a true inspiration for us all."

And U.S. President Barack Obama said that Maathai's life-long fight continues, building off what she was able to accomplish and the minds and policies she was able to shape over her lifetime.

"As she told the world, 'We must not tire, we must not give up, we must persist,'" Obama said in a statement. "Her legacy will stand as an example to all of us to persist in our pursuit of progress."